Scream Queens 2 Recap – Episode 2 – Being Other People

The second episode of Scream Queens 2 begins with Sierra and the other girls returning from elimination. Rosanna interviews that she felt a “wave of relief” when Sierra returned, because they’ve become fast friends. Losers Underdogs tend to do that.

But it’s obvious that Rosanna is just too nice for this show. When Gabby explains to other girls why the judges called her down, she’s like….

… and Allison is…not like that at all. She’s gone from angry asides to outward hostility in just one episode.

Unfortunately for Rosanna, this week’s theme is portraying the bad girl.

Jamie’s first challenge for the ladies is to develop a witch character and act out a spell. If Sierra can’t help sounding like she’s in a porn in every scene, then Rosanna can’t help looking like a witch that does children’s parties:

Sarah’s also got problems with this week’s theme. She is told “witch,” but hears “Grecian fairy princess” instead:

Gabby is up first, and it seems like she could draw on some real-life experience here. Her realnesss has a touch of Ren Faire in it (if she’s never attended one, I’ll eat whatever’s in her cauldron), as does her outfit:

Tai goes with “head diva in charge,” an inspired take on the witch. She wishes bad breath and split ends on her enemies. I can’t wait to see which contestant ends up with it!

Rosanna freezes during her performance, then ends by asking, “Am I done now?” Indeed, she is so done. This is a pretty bad break in character, unless her character was a girl who doesn’t know how to act.

“Damn, that was really good,” Allison says of Christine’s modern, gothy take on witchcraft. I dare her to say that to Christine’s face!

Jamie says some of them made unique choices that were interesting, and some not to interesting. For instance, Sierra chooses to put a tutu on her head and shriek about a ruined wedding day:

Was the tutu supposed to be a veil? On the other side, Christine’s Craft-like witch keeps her safe from elimination this week. Rosanna and Sierra realize that they have a ton of work to do, and vow to impress Homa in class today.

Homaroom! (3)

Today’s lesson: Communicating hatred. Homa has the ladies take turns threatening each other, but they can only recite the ABC’s instead of actual threats. It’s all about body language, and Gabby’s really eager to impress:

That last still doesn’t capture the quiet malice she conveyed, but it was there.

Sierra is bad at this, but at least she knows it. Her “mean” comes off as “weak,” her “scared,” comes off as “sexy.” Maybe someone should just give her opposite directions? “I didn’t please myself and I didn’t please John,” she says. It is remarkable how un-pleasurable her “sexy” is.

Rosanna’s last, so she has to partner with Homa. “Show me that evil,” he says. “I’m not an attacker on other people,” Rosanna explains. Thanks! But what the hell is she doing on Scream Queens? This is a show ostensibly about attacking other people, at least on film. “It doesn’t have to be true,” Homa yells-slash-pleads, “you just have to make me believe it is.” It doesn’t get more remedial than that in an acting class (Is this class called “What is acting?”). But she freezes…

…once…

…again.

Part of me thinks she’s so sweet that she believes acting means lying, and lying is baaaaad, so she won’t do it. Homa makes her sit down, and, once they get back, Sierra and Rosanna fully absorb the terribleness of their class performance.

They’ve got one last chance to redeem themselves. For the Director’s Cut, ladies will each play a sweet girlfriend who’s secretly a murdering cannibal.

Allison interviews that she has to be “sly and cunning and calculated,” so pretty much the character is Allison if she tried to conceal her meanness at all. She’s actually pretty great — her first take is flat, but she totally gets what Tim wants the second time around.

Sierra says she “tried to be a little bit more… sexy” with her character. Really, that goes without saying.

But Tim says it was the “high school version” (i.e. totally remedial version) of the scene he wanted.

Karlie promises to make her performance a little different. To cap her scene, she takes a bite from the raw meat that’s been sitting under hot lights for a while.

Gabby says it makes her want to throw up in her mouth with disgust. This being a show about horror movies, Karlie should take it as a compliment. An actress that’s game for raw game? Perfect.

Gabby nails her scene. And knows it:

Rosanna decides to go “Stepford Wife.” It plays to her strengths (creepy perkiness), until she forgets the script:

Beaten by the whole “acting” part of acting again.

Back at the house, the girls get the list of callbacks, and both Tai and Sierra are on it. Tai begins to doubt her performance, as if she doesn’t already know she did well. Sierra doesn’t second-guess, she knows exactly why she’s being called:

Tai and Gabby get called out as best this week, with Gabby winning Leading Lady. We don’t get to see Gabby’s finished scene, but we do get to see some fist pumps. And we see Tai’s final shot, where she, like Allison, nails “blood lust.”

Sarah gets called out for her weak scene. Tim basically tells her that her stills look great:

…but her performance wasn’t. That saves her from elimination. She interviews that it’s hard to act like a bad girl and be sexy. Truly a problem for actors. They used to blacklist you in Hollywood if they found out you were sexy.

So it’s Sierra and Rosanna, the best friends, on the chopping block. Sierra wastes no time weepily begging to stay on the show, while Rosanna simply says that she hopes to improve.

It’s like another acting challenge that Rosanna can’t bring herself to fake. So she gets cut instead of Sierra, who does her best overacting yet pleading with the judges. It’s too bad for Rosanna. She’d be a wonderful actress, if not for the whole pretending-to-be-other-people thing.